Pélléas and Mélisande eBook

Nothing. He has done what he probably must have
done. I am very old, and nevertheless I have
not yet seen clearly for one moment into myself; how
would you that I judge what others have done?
I am not far from the tomb and do not succeed in judging
myself.... One always mistakes when one does
not close his eyes. That may seem strange to
us; but that is all. He is past the age to marry
and he weds like a child, a little girl he finds by
a spring.... That may seem strange to us, because
we never see but the reverse of destinies ... the reverse
even of our own.... He has always followed my
counsels hitherto; I had thought to make him happy
in sending him to ask the hand of Princess Ursula....
He could not remain alone; since the death of his wife
he has been sad to be alone; and that marriage would
have put an end to long wars and old hatreds....
He would not have it so. Let it be as he would
have it; I have never put myself athwart a destiny;
and he knows better than I his future. There
happen perhaps no useless events....

GENEVIEVE.

He has always been so prudent, so grave and so firm....
If it were Pelleas, I should understand.... But
he ... at his age.... Who is it he is going to
introduce here?—­An unknown found along the
roads.... Since his wife’s death, he has
no longer lived for aught but his son, the little
Yniold, and if he were about to marry again, it was
because you had wished it.... And now ... a little
girl in the forest.... He has forgotten everything....—­What
shall we do?...

Enter PELLEAS.

ARKEL.

Who is coming in there?

GENEVIEVE.

It is Pelleas. He has been weeping.

ARKEL.

Is it thou, Pelleas?—­Come a little nearer,
that I may see thee in the light....

PELLEAS.

Grandfather, I received another letter at the same
time as my brother’s; a letter from my friend
Marcellus.... He is about to die and calls for
me. He would see me before dying....

ARKEL.

Thou wouldst leave before thy brother’s return?—­Perhaps
thy friend is less ill than he thinks....

PELLEAS

His letter is so sad you can see death between the
lines.... He says he knows the very day when
death must come.... He tells me I can arrive
before it if I will, but that there is no more time
to lose. The journey is very long, and if I await
Golaud’s return, it will be perhaps too late....

ARKEL.

Thou must wait a little while, nevertheless....
We do not know what this return has in store for us.
And besides, is not thy father here, above us, more
sick perhaps than thy friend.... Couldst thou
choose between the father and the friend?...
[Exit.